Mixed Member Proportional Government for Canada

Canadas political sympathies form was drafted at the Quebec conference by the so-c entirelyed Fathers of Confederation. In this formation, the ottoman of massive Britain has the formal executive advocator. This in effect made the Canadian government establishment loosely based on the organization world utilize by the United Kingdom ( wizard Stop Canada, n.d.).Up to now, the Queen is stillness the head of the state, but just like any other parliamentary democracy, her powers argon extremely limited. It is still the Parliament that drafts and approves the outlandishs laws, and then the Queen would go away the final approval, so to speak, go to sleepn as the Royal Assent. Whenever the Queen is non in Canada, the Governor General acts as her representative and performs all her observance and administrative duties. The Governor General is always chosen by the Queen by virtue of the Prime Ministers recommendation. The Governor General normally girdle in office for 5 years (O ne Stop Canada, n.d.).The seat of power lies in the House of Parliament, but specifically, in the House of Commons. It is them who lease laws for make laws for the peace, order and good government of Canada, and this includes defence, international policies, criminal law, immigration, border constraint and customs. They are being select every 5 years.The present strategy in the Canada is the single member pattern, comm scarce known besides as first past the post or plurality establishment, wherein the whole country is divided into constituencies (total of 308) and during elections, whoever gets the most number of right to votes in any particular constituency represents the constituency, and portion out a single seat in the Parliament (One Stop Canada, n.d.).This system is now being challenged by many because of the presumed lack of real model of this system.Challenges on the up-to-date system and call for a changeStatistics from go away years election show that in Briti sh capital of South Carolina, the Liberal Party gained 77 of the 79 lay for that province with only 58% of the votes, compared to the former govern Democratic Party who only gained 2 seats despite acquire 22% of the vote. (The Democratic Party held 52 seats during the elections before become year, with only 39.5% of the vote.)The jet-propelled plane Party, although they aim won 12.5% of the total votes, got no seats at all. This recent election has proven to many that there is a need for a change in their electoral system. Adriane Carr, the British Columbia Green Party leader, leads the go-ahead to change the existing first-past-the-post system of Canada. Carr launched this initiative to encourage the government to consider her drafted legislation on the mixed member proportional government (Caron, 1999 Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2002).In this proposed system, the benefits both electoral schemes leave behind be combined. A voter will aim a candidate that he or she likes, and at the same time, vote for a party also. In this way, all constituencies will be represented, and at the same time, a proportionate number of seats will also be given to parties receiving a certain theatrical role of votes, thus, ensuring the image on the interest or cause that it represents.It was also argued that this new system will maximize voter turnout as all votes will be taken into consideration, unlike the case of a first-past-the-post system where only the triumphant votes, so to speak, are represented in the parliament. This means that in this system, it would non only mean that the leading party would impart seats in the Parliament, but also the minority party or parties, depending on the percentage of votes that they stir won (Caron, 1999).This scheme is also said to emergence the representation of women in the Parliament. In many countries in the Europe, proportional representation change magnitude women representation by more than 10% (Caron, 1999) . Such condition is something being advocated by parties like the Democratic Party in Canada. If proportional representation will be adopted by the Canadian political system, it is forecasted to accession the voter turnout from all levels of election, and at the same time, also increase the representation of other interests in the Parliament. Theoretically, this scheme will make all votes count.The ultimate question go away this work in Canada?Many advocates of first-past-the-post system believe that if the system is not broken, then, do not fix it. nevertheless it appears that while it is not broken, there is a better way of doing it. withal cynics do not disagree with having a need for electoral reform.The current system of electoral process in Canada is based on a winner-take-all principle, which means that the only representation happening is the winning vote, i.e., the popular aider viewpoint. This also means that the other vote, the losing view, lose their right to politi cal representation. This system has produced a government with a winning party winning absolute majority of seats, without really wining majority of the votes (Gordon, 2003).Canadians have only enjoyed true majority governments, elected by a majority of voters, four times since World state of war I (Gordon, 2003). The recent election show how unrepresented the voters are. And with the idea that they really have not attained a true majority government yet, still, they are using the first-past-the-post system despite the theoretically good outcome of a proportional representation system, or at least, the mixed member proportion. In all aspects of the theory, from the idea of being truly representative, to the idea of increasing voters turnout, we know that this mixed member proportion will work.Since World War 1, only four times have the Canadian people attained a true representative majority, which means for only four times have the people been truly represented. This new system wi ll in closely all certainty, reduce the control of the reigning party in the parliament. The system has worked or is still showing potential benefits in all countries which have tried this. Canada will not be an exemption. So, more than just intercommunicate if this system will work in Canada, the ultimate question is Will the existing government give this a chance to work? full treatment citedCaron, Jean-Franois. The end of the first-past-the post electoral system? Canadian Parliamentary Review, 22.3 (Autumn 1999) 19-22.Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, 2002. Rod Donald exports MMP to Canada. Press release (28th March 2002).Gordon, Larry. Its time for fair voting in Canada. Economics at About.com (15 October 2003).One Stop Canada, n.d. Canadian Political System. http//www.onestopimmigration-canada.com/canadian_political_system.html